Posted 2 years ago on Dec. 22, 2012, 6:08 p.m. EST by TrevorMnemonic
(5827)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

"Call 311! Call NYCHA at 212-306-3000!

Hurricane Distribution Center being shut down by New York City Housing Authority!

The 57th Street Action Center has been operating as the central emergency distribution hub for the Arverne Queens area at the Ocean Bay Apartment houses since Hurricane Sandy struck the NYC area. The center distributes food, supplies, medical, and legal services to those still living in unhealthy environments. There are still 10,000 people living without power in Rockaway alone and the action center is under the threat of being closed down by its landlord, the New York City Housing Authority."

City says: "Stop all relief efforts including donation distribution areas" at community center and relief site in the Rockaways.

Statement by Mrs Doe of the Action Center:

"The non-profit corporation the Action Center for Education and Community Development Inc. has served the Rockaway community for over 12 years. Specific to NYCHA the Action Center runs the DYCD Cornerstone program from the Ocean Bay Community Center.

Following the advent of Sandy, although the community center its self was flooded, the Action Center quickly mobilized and morphed into a relief center that has become a life line to residents having providing including financial, medical, legal and nutritional, as well as basic day to day. To date this has translated into nearly 1,000 heaters distributed to ward off the cold, 300 toddler beds to our young and vulnerable, 1,000 Pack n Plays donated from the CEO of Greco to our babies, $100,000 in diaper, formula, and food from Diapers.com driven and fueled by nearly 2,000 moms, $ 2,000 in de-humiderfiers, and medical supplies by the truck load including one driven in by Robert Kennedy Jr himself.

On Dec 20th the Action Center was informed that in order to get the center cleaned so that the afterschool program can get back up and running they would have to stop all relief efforts including donation distribution areas, warming tents and medical and legal services and take all materials as well as the two 20 by 40 tents out and clear the building. Scant minutes after the meeting the Action Center’s medical team sent a resident to the emergency room, the mother of 4 in the middle of a heart attack.

It’s hard to think of what would have happened had we already cleared the building.

Because this is a daily life and death struggle we seek your help in finding a solution by working together & coming together to satisfy the needs of both NYCHA and crisis relief that The Action Center continues to supply. There are lives literally being saved. We are asking for help to work out a viable solution that achieves both goals which are not mutually exclusive.

If the rooms are cleared and cleaned room by room, all the services can continue while the cleaning takes place without interruption and without delaying the After-schools starting back up.

If that proved difficult to sanction the Action Center has two 20 by 40 tents on the premises, which were set up and operated by the same vendor that operated FEMAs and the Red Crosses as well as City tents. We’d like to have the option to continue services there, if the clearing and cleaning room by room proves problematic.

In addition to the physical beacon of hope the Action Center represents, our services has also helped bind the community together during this difficult time of struggle. Residents are anxious and tensions are high as they are once again faced with being left alone in their struggle if our services went away. All other sites are too far between 25 and 70 blocks, or because of inherent divisions in the community impossible to traverse. We want to elevate the tension and let them know as quickly as possible that a reasonable and measurable solution has been found